Party room, guest flat, laundry: bookings without a sheet on the door

Jonas Petersen manages the WEG Holtenauer Straße 88 in Kiel, 24 units, about a third of them let. In the cellar there is a laundry with two machines, in the basement a community room, and under the roof a small guest flat. Each room has its own procedure. The laundry runs on a list on the door, the guest flat on a pocket diary kept by Mr Lüders of the advisory board, and anyone who wants the community room for a birthday emails the management.

Last December two families were both promised the guest flat for the same holidays, one by Mr Lüders and one by email from the office. At the spring assembly the community then adopted rules of use for the three rooms and asked the management to run the bookings through the portal.

The rules come from the community

Who may use a shared room, when and for how long, is for the community to settle by agreement or resolution (§ 19 (1) WEG). Mr Petersen only carries the resolution over into the settings. The text of the rules, such as quiet hours or the duty to clean up afterwards, he enters for each room under Rules of use. Residents read it in the portal before they book.

Setting up three rooms

Under Room bookings Mr Petersen creates each room separately with New resource. For each one he sets:

• who may book: owners only, or owners and residents. Tenants only ever reach rooms of the second kind.
• the step bookings are made in: 30 minutes, one hour or whole days
• the shortest and the longest booking
• how many days ahead a booking may be made
• how many upcoming bookings one unit may hold at a time
• the opening hours for each weekday
• whether a booking needs the management's approval

He sets up the laundry as two resources, "Left machine" and "Right machine", because two households can wash at the same time. Both can be booked by owners and residents, in 30-minute steps, for at least one and at most three hours, 14 days ahead, Monday to Saturday from 7 am to 9 pm. Each unit may hold two upcoming bookings per machine. No approval is needed.

The community room is also open to all residents, by the hour for up to eight hours and up to 60 days ahead. Here the advisory board asked that every booking pass across the management's desk, so Mr Petersen ticks Bookings need approval.

Under the resolution the guest flat is reserved for owners: whole days, at least two and at most seven, up to 120 days ahead, one upcoming booking per unit, no approval. Whole days are calendar days. A guest leaving on Sunday books the Sunday too, and the next guest starts on Monday.

What residents see

Ms Okafor rents a flat on the second floor and has access to the tenant portal. Under Room bookings she finds the two machines and the community room; the portal does not show her the guest flat, because it is open to owners only. She opens the left machine, sees the week, taps a free start on Saturday at 9 am, picks the end at 11 am and books. Shortly afterwards she has a confirmation email with a calendar entry to import.

She sees taken times as taken, but not by whom. Only the management sees names and notes. A unit is one household: Ms Okafor and her husband share the limit of two upcoming bookings per machine. She can cancel her booking any time before it starts, and a cancellation email removes the calendar entry again.

Condomana rules out double bookings. Two bookings may touch, one ending at 11 am and the next starting at 11 am, but they may not overlap. A request still waiting for approval already holds its slot.

Approvals and declines

Mr Ahrens from the ground floor would like the community room for a Saturday evening in June. His request lands with Mr Petersen under Awaiting approval, and Mr Petersen is notified. He approves with one click, and Mr Ahrens receives the confirmation with a calendar entry.

Declining needs a reason, which the resident reads in the email. The same applies when the management cancels a confirmed booking, say because a water leak is being dried out in the community room.

Maintenance and changes

In July the right machine is replaced. Mr Petersen opens the resource and chooses Block period, labelled "Replacement". Nobody can book during that period, and residents see it as taken. If bookings already exist in it, Condomana allows the block only once he has cancelled them with a reason. That way everyone affected learns why their washing has to move.

If the community later changes the rules, for instance the laundry's opening hours, Mr Petersen adjusts the Settings. The change applies to new bookings; what is already booked stays. A room that is unavailable for a while can be paused.

What room booking does not do

Booking is free of charge in Condomana. If the community charges a fee or a deposit for the guest flat, you settle that outside Condomana; a booking creates nothing in the accounts.

Condomana does not manage keys. Mr Lüders still hands out the guest flat's key. As an owner he sees in the portal only that a period is taken, so the guest shows him the confirmation email.

Anyone who does not use the portal cannot book, and the management cannot book on someone's behalf. For tenants this means no booking without access to the tenant portal, and that access comes from an invitation by the owner who lets the flat. Anyone who moves out or sells can no longer book; their upcoming bookings stay until you cancel them.

In a data protection request a person's bookings appear in the access export, and an erasure removes them. How such requests run is covered in the article on access and erasure.

The essentials

• Every room is its own resource with its own rules. Two machines that can run at the same time are two resources.
• The community adopts the rules of use; in Condomana they become steps, limits, opening hours and approval.
• Double bookings are ruled out, including while a request waits for approval.
• Residents see "taken", not who booked.
• Fees, deposits and keys stay outside Condomana.